John Glenn

Guess What!

John Glenn was given the opportunity for a second space flight 36 years after his first flight.

Senator John Hershel Glenn, Jr. was born in Cambridge, Ohio on July 18, 1921. He graduated from Muskingum College with a degree in engineering. Senator Glenn and his wife, Annie, have two children and two grandchildren.

After the United States entered World War II, John Glenn joined the Naval
Aviation Cadet Program. Upon graduation, he was commissioned in the Marine
Corps. He flew numerous combat missions during World War II and during the Korean Conflict.

After service in Korea, John Glenn attended the Naval Test Pilot School. He served as project officer on a number of aircraft after his graduation. While serving as a project officer, he set a transcontinental speed record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in 3 hours and 23 minutes. It was the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speeds.

John Glenn was selected as one of seven Project Mercury
astronauts in 1959. In February of 1962, he became the first American
to orbit Earth. Two years later, he resigned from the Manned Spacecraft
Center.

John Glenn retired from the Marine Corps in 1965. He was a business
executive from 1965 until his election to the United States Senate in
November of 1974. On January 16, 1998,
NASA
announced Senator Glenn's selection as a member of the crew of Space Shuttle
Discovery mission STS-95. In addition to performing duties as a
payload specialist, Senator Glenn would be a subject for research on
how weightlessness affects the body of an older person.

Discovery was launched on October 29, 1998. This was a 9 day mission during which the crew supported a variety of research payloads. This mission was accomplished in 134 Earth orbits, traveling 3.6 million miles in 213 hours and 44 minutes.

A Question

Traveling at a speed of 18,000 miles an hour, John Glenn orbited the Earth three times. What was his speed per second?